The video MSNBC first played over Charles Blow’s comments about Occupy Wall Street was from a tea party protest of Obamacare. The video is obviously not video from any of the 99% or Occupy protests because the Washington Monument can be seen in the background, and if you look closely you can see an American flag with thirteen stars. There are also people marching with Obamacare signs, and the big giveaway is the age of the people pictured. There are older Americans at the current protests, but the flag carrying folks in the initial MSNBC clip are clearly tea party.
(I haven’t tracked down the original clips yet, but a comparison of video of tea party protests near the Washington Monument leads me to believe that video MSNBC used could be from the April 15, 2010 tea party rally at the Washington Monument. Any help identifying these videos would be appreciated).

MSNBC also didn’t label the first clips that they showed. There was no date or place listed. The next set of clips used in the segment were clearly Occupy Wall Street clips, because they featured the location where the video was shot in the upper left hand corner. Mitchell’s segment put the Astroturf tea party on par with the true grassroots movement of the 99%, the point was that politicians can’t figure out what to do with these protests.

The truth is that some politicians have figured it out. Bernie Sanders, Alan Grayson, and Nancy Pelosi have figured it out. If you support the 99%, you support these protests. It’s not hard. It is not some big complex confusing question. The only people who haven’t figured it out are those who exist in the Beltway media bubble.

The tea party has always been a partisan movement. They only protested Obama’s policies. They don’t run candidates in Democratic primaries, and they are funded and run by organizations that support the Republican Party. As Mitchell’s guest Charles Blow pointed out, the Occupy protests exist outside of politics. The 99% Movement and the Occupy protests have nothing in common with the tea party. The tea party supported cutting taxes on millionaires and billionaires. The tea partiers protested to keep the unfair and equal policies in place. The tea party protested against change. Occupy Wall Street is protesting to change this country.

The mainstream media needed an easy point of reference to sell the story, so they lumped a true grassroots movement in with the tea party. MSNBC thought that they could drive the message home by with a little Fox style mixing in of a little tea party video with some Occupy Wall Street clips.

It all makes me wonder if the corporate media is trying to kill the Occupy movement, by attaching it to the unpopular tea party.